Hot and Sour Okra

This recipe is dedicated to all my siblings who salivate at the thought of “sour goodies.” In fact, if any of you were around this afternoon, there wouldn’t have been any leftovers to photograph—it’s that irresistible! I used two different astringent ingredients—aamchoor (dried mango powder) and lemon juice—to give depth and sharpness to the sour note. My recommended measurements for both are keeping in mind more conservative palates. Just how much of each you use really depends on your taste buds and the potency of the ingredients. It’s better to start with less and to amplify the tartness based on your tolerance.

Ingredients

2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 tsp whole Black Mustard seeds
1 tsp whole Cumin
¼ tsp Hing (Asafoetida)
2 Shallots, thinly sliced
8–10 Green Chillies, minced
2 tsp freshly ground Ginger
1½ lbs [700 gms] Okra, with the stalks and ends trimmed, and cut into 1-inch–long pieces
1 tbsp ground Coriander
½ tsp Turmeric powder
Salt (to taste)
1½ tsp Aamchoor (dried mango powder)
Juice of ½ Lemon

1. Heat oil in a large skillet or frying pan over high heat. Add black mustard seeds, cumin, and hing, and let sputter for a few seconds until the mustard starts to pop. Add shallots, green chillies, and ginger, and stir briskly for 2–3 minutes, until the shallots start take on colour at the edges. 
2. Add okra and cook for about 3 mins until lightly golden. Add coriander, turmeric, and salt and stir well. If the pan gets too dry, sprinkle 2–3 tbsp water. Turn heat to low, put a lid on the pan, and let steam for about 5 mins.
3. Turn off heat, add aamchoor and lemon juice, and stir well. Let sit for 10 mins before serving.

Potato and Bratwurst Salad with Shallot-Mustard Dressing

One of my favourite butchers in New York is Esposito’s in Hell’s Kitchen. You’ll find all manner of meat, poultry and game here, but their specialty is hand-tied links of sausage, which they make in the premises daily— Italian sausages, Spanish-style fresh chorizo, Irish bangers, and Bavarian bratwursts. In this recipe, I paired their bratwurst with baby new potatoes and sweet caramelised shallots, rounded off with tangy vinegar and mustard.

Ingredients
2 lbs [1 kg] Baby New Potatoes
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 lbs [1 kg] Bratwurst sausage, cut into ½-inch-thick pieces
4 Shallots, thinly sliced
3 sprigs Thyme
3 tbsp Vinegar
3 tbsp Spicy Mustard
Salt (to taste)
½ tsp freshly ground Black Pepper
2 tbsp Olive Oil
3 tbsp Chives, chopped into 2-inch long pieces

1. Boil whole, skin-on potatoes in salted water for 10–12 mins, until fork tender. Drain off water and set aside potatoes in a large mixing bowl. 
2. Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a large skillet or frying pan over high heat. Add sausage and brown well on both sides. Remove sausage from pan and set aside in mixing bowl with potatoes. 
3. Heat remaining vegetable oil in pan and add shallots and thyme. Cook for 5–7 mins until golden brown and well caramelised. Lower heat, add vinegar, and let simmer for about a min, scraping any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Turn off heat, and stir-in mustard. 
4. Discard thyme and transfer shallot mixture to mixing bowl. Add salt, pepper, olive oil, and chives, and toss well. Let the salad sit for at least 40 mins to allow the flavours to steep. Serve at room temperature.

Aromatic Turkey Meatloaf with Caramelised Fennel and Red Onions

Tastey Boy doesn’t really like fennel—he says that it’s a weird vegetable and is averse to it in most forms! I on the other hand, think fennel is remarkably versatile—shaved thin and served raw in a salad or cooked in rustic chunks as a side dish—and lends it’s anise-y scent to fish and poultry beautifully. So to temper TB’s distaste, I hid two whole bulbs in a golden and aromatic turkey meatloaf one night, and he was none the worse for wear. In fact, the caramelized strands added oodles of moisture and texture to the finished dish and he had no compunction wrapping leftovers for lunch the next day and sneaking cold nibblies from the fridge the rest of the week.

Ingredients
1 cup Breadcrumbs
1 cup Milk
3 tbsp Olive Oil
4 cloves Garlic, finely minced
¼ cup Celery, finely chopped
2 large Red Onions, sliced
2 large Fennel bulbs, sliced
2 large Eggs
2 lbs [1 kg] ground Turkey
1 tbsp fresh Thyme
Salt (to taste)
1 tsp Black Pepper

1. Stir together breadcrumbs and milk in a small bowl and let stand for 5 mins. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. 
2. In a large skillet or frying pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil and sauté garlic and celery over high heat for 3-4 mins until softened. Transfer celery and garlic to the mixing bowl with breadcrumbs mixture. 
3. In the same skillet, heat remaining 2 tbsp olive oil and cook onions and fennel for 7–10 mins, until golden brown and well caramelised. Add onions and fennel to the mixing bowl. 
4. Whisk eggs and add to mixing bowl along with ground turkey, thyme, salt and black pepper, and mix well with your hands to combine all ingredients thoroughly. (Mixture will be fairly moist.) 
5. Place mixture in a baking pan and shape into a roughly 9- by 5-inch rectangular loaf. Cover with foil and bake in a 400ºF [200ºC] pre-heated oven for 1 hour. Remove foil from the baking dish and continue baking uncovered for another 15 mins until the top of the meatloaf is golden. Remove from oven and serve cut into 1-inch thick slices.

Seared Bok Choy with Nigella and Blackened Chillis

Bok Choy, a Chinese cousin of the Western cabbage, is one of those wondrously mild and supremely versatile green leafy vegetables that takes easily to strong seasoning. It is also simple to prepare—just separate the individual segments and rinse well. If using baby bok choy, then the stems are tender enough to be cooked whole with the leaves. If using a more mature bok choy, then separate the harder stems from the leaves by chopping into smaller pieces. This recipe maximises the mildness of the vegetable, which is a perfect foil for the amazing smokiness of blackened chillis and musky nigella seeds.

Ingredients 

1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
6–8 whole Dried Red Chillis
1 tbsp Nigella seeds
3–4 cloves of Garlic, cut into thin slivers
1½ lbs [700 gms] Bok Choy, washed and with the ends of the stalks trimmed off
Salt (to taste)

1. Heat oil in a large skillet or frying pan over high heat until smoking. Add dried red chillis and stir briskly for about a minute until the chillis just start to blacken. Remove chillis and set aside. 
2. Lower heat to medium, add nigella seeds and sputter for about a minute. Add garlic and stir for about 2 mins until they are lightly golden.
3. Increase heat to high, add bok choy and stir fry for 5 mins until the ends start to char. Add salt and blackened chillis, and continue to stir for another 2–3 mins. Turn off heat, put a lid on the skillet and let sit for 5 mins before serving.

Roasted Potato and Cauliflower with Paanch Phoron

This is a twist on a classic Bengali potato and cauliflower dish—aloo-kopi chochchori. I used all the prescribed ingredients but instead of cooking it on the stovetop, I roasted the vegetables in the oven. The resulting dish retains all the aroma and complexity of the original recipe, but instead of being soft and soggy, it has a dry and crispy finish, which is the perfect complement to steaming hot daal and rice on a cold winter day.

Ingredients
1 head of Cauliflower (about 1½ lbs [750 gms] after the stalks and leaves are trimmed), washed and cut into small florets
1½ lbs [750 gms] Potatoes, washed and cut, skin-on, into 1-inch cubes
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 tbsp Paanch Phoron*
2 tbsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Chilli powder
1 tsp freshly ground Black Pepper
Sea Salt (to taste)
2 tbsp Olive Oil

1. Pre-heat oven to 450º F (230ºC). Arrange cauliflower florets and potatoes in one layer in a baking dish.
2. Heat vegetable oil in a skillet or frying pan over high heat. Add paanch phoron and let sputter for about 1 min. Remove from heat and pour the spices and oil over the vegetables. 
3. Sprinkle turmeric, chilli powder, black pepper, and sea salt, drizzle with olive oil, and using your hands, toss well to mix. 
4. Roast in the oven for 30 mins, then stir the vegetables with a large spoon to ensure that they caramelise evenly. Continue roasting for another 15 mins. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

[*Paanch Phoron is a five-spice blend used extensively in Eastern India, especially in the cuisines of Bengal, Orissa and Assam. The five whole spices are blended in equal parts— Fenugreek seeds (methi), Nigella seeds (kalonji, or kaalo jirey), Fennel seeds (mouri), Carom (radhuni), Mustard seed (shorshey). In my family, the fifth spice, mustard, is not used, but the blend is still referred to as “five spice.”]

Fat Sister Turns 2!

Hear ye, hear ye—Fat Sister’s Guide to Life is officially two-years-old today. Yes, grand ol’ TWO!

In these short 24 months, I’ve cooked and decorated and proselytised my way to 8,055 visitors, and 3,356 unique visitors. Now that is peanuts compared to some mega blogs with legions of followers. But I’m nonetheless proud of every one of those clicks and visits. So humour me this once and allow me to crow about my labour-of-love today. And most importantly let me holler a big three cheers to all my faithful readers for keeping me company and coming-along for the ride—mille grazie!

I also want to take this opportunity to share some interesting visitor data and traffic patterns with you.

• I had readers from 94 countries and 6 continents. 72.9% of my readers hailed from USA; followed by UK and India with 7% each; and Canada, Australia, UAE, Israel, Germany, Brazil, and Sri Lanka rounding off the top ten countries. 
• 53.42% of my visitors were Mac users; 33.35% were on a PC; and the rest were using tablets and mobile devices, primarily iPads, iPhones, and Blackberries. 
• I had 31,865 total pageviews, and 12,825 unique pageviews. 
• The blogpost with the most pageviews was Ribbon Embroidery, followed very closely by Pantry Basics: Essential Indian Spices. 
• The recipes with the most pageviews were Tastey Boy’s Favourite Fiery Sukha Chicken, Maple Mustard Coriander-Crusted Pork Spare Ribs, and Roasted Root Vegetables. 
• The most viewed post on decorating was Adventures in Tiling. 

This was the Analytics team’s take on the blog. Now dear readers, tell me what YOU think. What would you like to see more of in 2012? What kinds of recipes do you want? Is more detailed advice on decorating, and entertaining tips in order? I’d love more of your comments and feedback so I can continue to share with you Fat Sister’s adventures in living large and beautifully.

Braised Red Chard with Tomatoes, Chickpeas and Spicy Sausage

This is one of those super versatile dishes that I came up with using leftovers in my fridge. And like all truly great leftover recipes, you can easily substitute a lot of the main ingredients with whatever you have handy. If red chard is not available, then spinach or kale will do just as well; red kidney beans or black-eyed peas can swap-in for chickpeas; and any savoury or cured meat (bacon/sausage/ham) will do. Serve it as a side dish or, even better, as a main course, piled on top a steaming mound of couscous or rice.

Ingredients 

2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
12 oz [340 gms] Spicy Sausage (like Chorizo or Spicy Italian), cut into ½”-thick pieces
1 tbsp whole Fennel seeds
2 sticks Cinnamon
2 Bay leaves
3 cloves Garlic, finely minced
4 small Tomatoes, chopped
1½ lbs [750 gms] Red Chard, washed and cut into 2-inch strips, including stalks
16oz [½ kg] canned Chickpeas, drained and thoroughly washed
Salt (to taste)
1 tsp freshly ground Black Pepper
½ tsp Chili powder
Juice of ½ Lemon (reserve the leftover lemon—rind, pith, and pulp—cut into quarters, for use later in the recipe)
½ cup Chicken stock, or Water
1/3 cup Cilantro, finely chopped

1. Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a large skillet or frying pan. When the oil is smoking, add sausage and brown evenly on both sides. Remove sausage onto a paper towel-lined plate and set aside. 
2. Add remaining oil to same pan and heat. Add fennel, cinnamon, and bay leaves and allow the spices to sputter for 1 minute. Add garlic and stir for 1–2 mins, until lightly golden. Add tomatoes and cook for 3–4 mins, until they start to break down. 
3. Add chard in batches and stir briskly until the leaves are wilted. Add sausage, chickpeas, salt, pepper, chilli powder, lemon juice, and lemon pieces and stir well. Add chicken stock, lower heat, and continue cooking for 5 mins. 
4. Turn off heat, sprinkle with cilantro and let sit for 5 mins. Serve hot over steamed couscous or rice.